Track Listing

Artist Statements

"I never in a million years ever expected or imagined anyone would hear this. A few times a day, probably 20 times a week, I record a little ditty to myself on my phone. Sometimes it's just a guitar riff, sometimes just a phrase, sometimes a melody. This is representative of when guitar, melody, and basic words all pop out at once. But to be clear--this song was never written! It was never even played a second time! This is a recording of the song as it came out for the first time, in the Spring of 2012. "
- Tim Kinsella

"This was the last song Fang Island ever recorded, though parts of the song were written as early as 2007. This is a single unedited take with no overdubs, recorded at Gravesend Recordings by Carlos Hernandez and Julian Fader."
- Jason Bartell (Fang Island)

"Stretchy" was composed for a deleted scene from John Waters' Cry-Baby, to be included on the 15th anniversary director's cut DVD released in 2005. Nobody could identify the original music used during playback for the scene, thus making clearance an impossibility, so I was asked to compose something similar as a replacement. I had known Lou Barlow for over a decade at this point, but the thought of working with him was a dream I had never dared to dream out loud. Having a project for John Waters gave me the courage to ask him to collaborate with me. Lou happily agreed, so with a time-coded VHS copy of the scene in hand, we set up in Lou's living room in front of the TV with a collection of instruments resembling the inside sleeve of One Part Lullaby. The scene, dubbed "Lil Ruth", features a young girl's solo contortionist act, and Lou dubbed our instrumental "Stretchy". It was an extremely fun project and everyone seemed happy with the results, but as fate would have it, our song wasn't used, as the original music was identified at the 11th hour and cleared for release on the DVD. Although I felt a slight tinge of disappointment, using the original track was really for the best as this was John's original vision for the scene. Lou and I enjoyed the doing, and that's all that really matters. This music is retroactively credited to Dumb Numbers (the band name that many years later would come from Lou's daughter Hannelore, who wasn't even born when this track was recorded) as it really was the original spark of collaboration that birthed what this project would later become.
- Adam Harding (Dumb Numbers)

“When presented with the challenge of covering another Joyful Noise band several years ago I instantly thought of this song. The “Alopecia” record really hit me hard when i first stumbled upon it in college. Yoni’s lyrics are beautiful and absorbing and visceral yet I have to say that when I first heard this track, it was the music that hit me the hardest. I couldn't imagine how a live band could play a song like that. When i finally saw them live ~2009 the reality was more satisfying than I could even imagine. The arrangement we did takes advantage of the fact that we had 3 keyboardists in our band for the first (and only) time. I enjoyed harmonizing the vocals with a vocoder, something I had never really tried before. We love this song <3.”
- Reptar